Supercapacitors: Hybrid vehicle turbo-chargers?

Would you like to supercharge that?

Recently, Lotus indicated the possibility of a supercapacitor-powered mild hybrid, something many automakers are exploring. Today, supercapacitors are too expensive for hybrid cars, but one can easily imagine lithium-powered mild hybrids with a few small supercapacitors to assist highway acceleration or hill climbing, for example, entering the hybrid fray one day.

To prepare for this possibility, IEC is preparing technical standards.

"Although the energy density of capacitors is quite low compared to batteries, their excellent power characteristics are their main value—providing ‘bursts’ of electric energy that can help these new generation of cars to accelerate at comparable or better rates than traditional petrol-only engine vehicles, while achieving a significantly reduced fuel consumption," stated Dr. Peter Van den Bossche, IEC project leader from the Erasmus University College in Brussels, Belgium